| 17 June 2009
There's this awful show on television called "Life After People," which uses "science" to create a look into what the world would be like without...(wait for it!)...human beings. The sheer idiocy of the show got me thinking about the NHL (don't ask how) and what would the 2008-2009 NHL season be without its biggest stars.
But with the NHL Awards Show just a few hours away, it spurred a science experiment of my own, and I soon found myself loading up NHL 09 to answer the question, "What would the Capitals, Penguins and Red Wings be without their Hart Trophy nominees?" You could even argue that this is a crude way to put the "if X player wasn't on X team, how good would they be?" meme to the test.
I know what you're thinking, "Reed, you silly bastard, how could a video game accurately predict anything, didn't you see when NHL 09 said Boston would win the Cup?" But perhaps it's not just simulating a season in a video game that can tell us who is the true MVP of the league, but rather simulating a season without the Hart nominees that will tell us who the MVP is.
I removed Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin from their respective teams. Turned off trades, kept the salary cap on, and then simulated one whole season without the Russian dynamos.
Of course there are some variables, such as the CPU signing players to replace them with the newfound cap space, player ratings not accurately depicting a players' skill (Semin) and of course, Jose Theodore is much better in NHL 09 than he is in real life, but still it's a fun experiment that at best will raise a few eyebrows.
The NHL Playoff picture
The West:
The East:
The Result:
Even without Ovechkin, the Capitals make the playoffs. Alex Semin leads the team in goals (40), points (81) and ties Mike Green for assists (41).
Henrik Zetterburg picks up Datsyuk's slack and scores 81 points and leads the Wings in goals (37), but Nicklas Lidstrom leads the Wings in assists (48).
Finally we get to the Malkin-less Pens. Sidney Crosby suffers an injury during the season and only plays 69 games. Jordan Staal leads the Pens in goals (31) and points (71), but Sergei Gonchar leads in assists (51). Sidney Crosby has his worst season ever due to injury with only 27 goals, 33 assists and 60 points.
Washington finishes the season in fourth place with 102 points.
Detroit finishes in 22nd place with 84 points.
Pittsburgh finishes 26th with 80 points.
The President's trophy winner and eventual Stanley Cup winner is the Columbus Blue Jackets with 114 points. The Blue Jackets crush the Bruins in five games in the Finals.
The Awards
Art Ross - Ilya Kovalchuk
Hart Memorial - Ilya Kovalchuk
James Norris - Derek Morris
Lady Byng - Daniel Alfredsson
Calder - Steve Mason
Conn Smythe - Nikita Filatov
Vezina - Henrik Lundqvist
William M. Jennings - Manny Legace
Masterton Memorial - Milan Hedjuk
Franke J. Selke - Todd Bertuzzi
Lester B. Pearson - Ilya Kovalchuk
Maurice Richard - Ilya Kovalchuk
Lesson learned:
Malkin should be the MVP by this simulation alone and video games should never be relied upon for anything.
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